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French alphabet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The French alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet. It uses the standard 26 letters. The words in the column "Letter name in French" are sometimes used when discussing the letters (compare English words such as "aitch").
| Letter | Letter name (IPA) | Letter name in French |
| A | /ɑ/ | a |
| B | /be/ | bé |
| C | /se/ | cé |
| D | /de/ | dé |
| E | /ə/ | e |
| F | /ɛf/ | effe |
| G | /ʒe/ | gé |
| H | /aʃ/ | ache |
| I | /i/ | i |
| J | /ʒi/ | ji |
| K | /ka/ | ka |
| L | /ɛl/ | elle |
| M | /ɛm/ | emme |
| N | /ɛn/ | enne |
| O | /o/ | o |
| P | /pe/ | pé |
| Q | /ky/ | qu |
| R | /ɛʁ/ | erre |
| S | /ɛs/ | esse |
| T | /te/ | té |
| U | /y/ | u |
| V | /ve/ | vé |
| W | /dublə ve/ | double vé |
| X | /iks/ | icse |
| Y | /igʁɛk/ | i grec |
| Z | /zɛd/ | zède |
Contents |
Special ligatures exist for some words:
- 'W' and 'K' are rarely used except in loan words or regional words, 'ou' is used to represent the /w/ sound;
- vowels are A, E, I, O, U, sometimes Y;
- semi-vowels are Y, rarely W (except regionally, for instance in Belgium);
- usual diacritic marks are acute ( ´ ), grave ( ` ), circumflex ( ˆ ), diaeresis (called tréma in French) ( ¨ ), and the cedilla ( ¸ ). The most frequent combinations are: à â ç é è ê ë î ï ô û ù ü ÿ. Diacritics have no impact on the primary alphabetical order.
- the tilde diacritical mark ( ˜ ), used only above n, is occasionally used with the French alphabet, for well-known words or terms of Spanish origin that have been incorporated in the language (El Niño, cañon, ...) even though they also have an alternate orthography (with "gn" or "ny" instead of "-ñ-"). Like the other diacritics, the tilde has no impact on the primary alphabetical order.
Many 19th-century French dictionaries mention a second system of naming the consonant letters, called "la nouvelle épellation" as opposed to the "épellation traditionelle" mentioned above. In this system, the consonant letters were read as follows: be, ke, de, fe, gue, he, je, ke, le, me, ne, pe, ke, re, se, te, ve, we, kse, ze. Although it is more phonetically based than the traditional system, "la nouvelle épellation" never took hold (Grevisse 1980).
- ^ Grevisse, Maurice (1980). Le Bon Usage: Grammaire française avec des Remarques sur la langue française d'aujourd'hui, 11th ed., Paris-Gembloux: Duculot. ISBN 2-8011-0242-3.